Extended mandate at the 64th meeting of the Committee for Technical and Economic Studies on Nuclear Energy Development and the Fuel Cycle (NDC) [NEA/NDC(2015)6]

Mandate extended at the 66th meeting of the Committee for Technical and Economic Studies on Nuclear Energy Development and the Fuel Cycle (NDC) [NEA/NDC/M(2016)2/FINAL]

Extension of the mandate of the Ad hoc Expert Group on Climate Change: Assessment of the Vulnerability of Nuclear Power Plants and Cost of Adaptation (NUCA) [NEA/NDC(2017)28]

Extension of the mandate of the Ad hoc Expert Group on Climate Change: Assessment of the Vulnerability of Nuclear Power Plants and Cost of Adaptation (NUCA) [NEA/NDC(2017)28/REV]

Extension procedure ongoing

Mandate being reviewed ‑ procedure ongoing

Mandate (Document extract):

Extract from document NEA/NDC(2017)28

BACKGROUND

There is increasing concern, on the evidence of current energy policies in both developed and developing economies, that greenhouse gas emissions will not be reduced sufficiently fast to avoid the effects of climate change. Climate projections show in some regions the increased likelihood of intense heat waves accompanied by droughts, or violent storms, flooding, etc. Such effects could undermine the output of thermal power plants, and nuclear power plants (NPPs) in particular, which require large quantities of water for cooling. Safety or environmental considerations due to extreme weather conditions may also lead to throttling or shut down of power plants, at an economic cost to the owners. Events such as the heat waves that hit Europe in 2003 and 2006, and more recently the United States in 2012, have shown that nuclear power operation can indeed be affected by cooling water availability issues. Storms, such as the tropical storm Sandy that hit the East Coast of the United States in October 2012 can also be a matter for concern, as they can undermine the integrity of the transmission network or, through flooding and transport of debris, challenge the operation of the cooling systems. In either case, the operation of NPPs can also be affected by such extreme climatic events.

Events which today appear to be rare may become more frequent in the future. Given the expected lifetime of nuclear power plants – 60 years for new designs – it is clear that climate change considerations must be addressed at design, planning and licensing stages, and this will have an impact on the cost of nuclear electricity. Even for operating units, there may be the need to retrofit the plants to make them more resilient in the face of climate change. Closed cooling systems, more robust water intake systems and more efficient heat exchangers are examples of adaptation measures. These have a cost, which must be compared to the cost of inaction, i.e. the risk of forced outages due to extreme weather.

OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE

The Committee for Technical and Economic Studies on Nuclear Energy Development and the Fuel Cycle (NDC) launched a study in 2013 on the issue of adaptation to climate change. The primary objectives of the study are to:

Quantify the vulnerability of nuclear power plants to climate change effects;

Quantify the cost of inaction;

Quantify the cost of adaptation.

As guidance to the study, a detailed background paper was drafted and sent to the NDC prior to its meeting held on 3-4 October 2012. On the basis of this paper and the discussions with the NDC at this meeting, it is proposed to carry out the study by addressing the following issues and tasks:

Review climate change scenarios up to 2080 or the end of the century, considering that new reactors are designed for 60-year lifetime. The focus will be on NEA countries.

Perform case studies on past climatic events which have affected the operation of NPPs, in terms of outages, output losses. The following type of events would be included:

Droughts and heat waves, leading to restrictions on NPP main cooling systems (environmental regulations) and/or on NPP essential service water systems (safety regulations). Effect of elevated air temperatures on safety equipment;

Assess the impact of these adaptation costs on the costs of electricity generation to be compared with the cost of inaction (i.e. loss of output due to throttling our outages).

Analyse how climate change might affect in the long term the contribution that nuclear power makes to the security of energy supply.

To achieve these objectives, an expert group will be established, under the oversight of the NDC. This expert group may include representatives of utilities and power generation technology providers, regulators, ministries in charge of energy and climate issues, research and academic organisations, key associations and international organisations.